Rick Perry

The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says that a now-bankrupt company behind a defunct West Texas "clean coal" power plant spent more than $1.3 million in federal stimulus funds on things like spa service, alcohol, first-class travel and limousine services.

Anguish over property taxes is at or near the top of the list of what politicians hear most often from Texans. This is not a complicated part of the civic compact: Voters are peeved. Politicians aim to please. Lowering taxes would make a politician popular with voters.

"The idea that the American people need to be paying for these types of operations to change your sex is not very wise from a standpoint of economics," U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said during a stop in Waller, Texas, on Friday.

As Texas legislators began to speculate about whether and when they will be called into a special session for unfinished business, lawyers and others started looking for ways to avoid it. The simplest idea — an executive order — won't work.

The Texas Senate has approved its version of House Bill 3016, which would make it easier for people to apply for jobs if they have low-level offenses on their records. Such applicants would not be required to disclose their offenses.

In a Houston Chronicle op-ed, Perry endorsed two measures moving through the Texas Legislature: one that would seal certain offenders' records and another that seeks to make the grand jury process more fair.

The Trump administration announced this week that Texas’ longest-serving governor, now the U.S. energy secretary, would be a member of the president’s main advisory group on intelligence and defense matters.

Thanks to some glow sticks and a strict interpretation of election rules, the student body president election at Texas A&M University has gained national attention — and the suspicion of former Gov. Rick Perry.